on the real i do think people really miss the point with kaworu and overdetermine the supposed "effect" he had on shinji. he comes in and placates shinji's guilt over toji/asuka and supposedly gives this "reprieve" to mental distress (not abt piloting eva if ur paying attention)

theres a lot of projection onto shinji as a character n ppl thinking he has all the mental complexity and depth of a living person but lol when ur looking @ the literal narrative, his internal struggle stays static the whole time and @ the moment he would be confronting that

struggle to develop + rise above + "redeem" himself, kaworu comes and placates his guilt/sorrow. when that alleviation of guilt is removed and shinji is again forced to confront his moral turpitude THEN he has a meltdown and his actions catalyze the plot. you look @ the end of

the show where shinji is allowed to 'make a decision' for the rest of humanity, does so (finally), and then decides that that wasn't for him (it wasn't earned). he then attacks asuka and she shows him grace. then everyone fixates on Kawoshin as if that relationship had any

bearing to positive development of the protagonist? it just delayed an inevitable conclusion that NGE was working toward re: morally abject people behaving immorally, a denial/negation of actual resolution bc none of the main players in the show want to change their behavior

the implication of this, rather than using redemption, is that U can have all the tools to recognize a problem (such as shinji's supposed "breakthrough" at the end), but if you aren't willing to commit to that and sit with the discomfort of accountability, u will relapse